Another Day, Another Dream: The Desire to Escape the Classroom Norm

I wrote this piece to express that there is so much more that we can go on to learn outside of the constricting walls of the average classroom curriculum. I hope this inspires others to dream big and try to make a change to expand curriculum to be more student driven and focused in on student's personal interests.

The lack of comfort of the desk leaves my mind as my eyes slowly close, and I drift off into the limitless abyss of my imagination yet again. Jellyfish spiral and swirl by me, going with the ocean current cycling around me. Hundreds of jellyfish, swishing round and round through bubbles and colorful coral tunnels. I breathe in and just take in the moment, hoping it never ends. All I could feel was pure bliss. I look around the vast ocean, excited to see and explore the mysteries and wonders of the deep blue sea. When I look up, I see the sun’s rays gleaming down on my face, and it grazes the tips of corals on the ocean floor. Suddenly a shallow, faded voice calls my name, over and over, becoming clearer and clearer as though I was being pulled back up to the surface. ¨Frankie!¨ I am shaken awake, not by the hand of my desk neighbor rubbing my shoulder but the earth rattling voice of Miss Hancock, echoing deeper and deeper in my eardrums. I slowly open my eyes just a crack to see Miss Hancock standing at the front of the classroom, staring me down. The expression in her eyes isn’t surprise, really. It’s just the same look I get from her every day. And I give her the same look back.

Looks like I only got 5 minutes in dream land today. I just wanted to enjoy a peaceful nap, Miss Hancock. Why’d you have to tear me from that beautiful dream? And for what, to keep me here in this isolated tank, just to be stuck in this school of fish? Everything here is always the same, and my mind demands some thrill. When I wake up do you think I want to be here? Do I seem like I want to wake up to your nagging voice? Or your squeaking white board marker writing out long division? To open my eyes to see a worksheet in my face, a worksheet covered with the same variation of problems I was confronted with yesterday? Considering my options, to be here or elsewhere, I think I make it fairly clear that I’d rather be somewhere that can quench my thirst for the world. In the classroom, I have dreams to take me there. I never really want to wake up at all, the life I experience in my dreams is much more valuable than what is pushed through one ear and out the other in math. ‘There are plenty of fish in the sea’ is a well known adage, and if it’s true, that must mean there’s some diversity out there, something new! Someone new! Someone that can show me the world, something I’ve never seen before! My dreams take me places, but in reality, I’m stuck here. In this classroom. Where life seems as though it is stuck on repeat. And Miss Hancock, who seems to only torment me, doesn’t let me go play on the playground when I fall asleep in class. So it looks like I’m stuck staying in this classroom. Again.

Subscribe

Get Teen Ink’s 48-page monthly print edition. Written by teens since 1989.